Lansdowne Lectures at the University of Victoria

On March 23, 1978, the University of Victoria received $4.5 million from the British Columbia Ministry of Education for the sale of the University's former campus on Lansdowne Road, which was then to be further developed as the site of Camosun College. By formal agreement with the Ministry, this total amount was invested in trust, with the revenue dedicated to a special program of distinguished academic appointments. At first, the period of appointment might be for as long as two years; it became the typical pattern, however, to bring eminent scholars to the University for periods ranging from two to five days. The purpose of these short-term appointments was viewed as academic enrichment, complementing and enhancing a department's regular program of studies.

The first Lansdowne appointment in the Department of Classics was for a term of six months: W.J. Niall Rudd, Professor of Latin and Head of the Department of Classics at the University of Bristol, accepted a Lansdowne position from July 1 to December 31, 1979, thus becoming one of the University of Victoria's earliest Lansdowne Visiting Scholars. All subsequent Lansdowne appointments in Classics or Greek and Roman Studies, as documented in the list that follows, have been for a period not longer than one week. These visitors have usually delivered three public lectures of broad interest, and one or two seminars of a more specialized nature.

Over the past twenty-five years, the Department has been highly successful in bringing to Victoria many of the world's leading classical scholars, in all the major branches of our discipline. The result has been richly rewarding for faculty members, students, and the wider community of Victoria residents.

For a brief video history of the Lansdowne Lectures by Peter L. Smith, Professor Emeritus, Department of Greek and Roman Studies, click here (requires Quicktime).

Other Video-recorded lectures

Provost's Lecturers

John Oleson
Distinguished Professor of Humanities, University of Victoria Keith Bradley Professor, University of Victoria
Eli J. Shaheen Professor of Classics, University of Notre Dame

Lansdowne Lectures in the Department of Greek & Roman Studies.

Some Videos are available here as well.

2005 Richard Janko
Department of Classical Studies, University of Michigan
  • Feb. 19, 2005 "Creation and Destruction in the thought of Empedocles: The Newly Recovered Poem of a Fifth-Century B.C. Guru"
  • Feb. 21, 2005 "From the Thera volcano to Mopsus of Cilicia: Greek Memories of the Aegean Bronze Age"
  • Feb. 22, 2005 "The Ancient Library from the Villa of the Papyri,Herculaneum: Past Discoveries, Future Prospects"
  • Feb. 22, 2005 "New Evidence for Aristotle's Lost Dialogue "On Poets", from Herculaneum"
2004 Thomas G. Palaima
Department of Classics, University of Texas at Austin
  • Nov. 15, 2004 "Gods, Kings and commoners in the Homeric Age: Linear B Records and the Reconstruction of Greek Bronze Age Society"
  • Nov. 16, 2004 "Deciphering the First European Script: The Woman in Front of the Men"
  • Nov. 18, 2004 "What the Greeks Can Teach Us about War"
  • Nov. 19, 2004 "Cult, Ritual and Interpretation: What Every Classicist Should Know about the Linear B Evidence"
2003 David Konstan
Department of Classics, Brown University
  • Oct. 20, 2003 "Shame in Ancient Greek"
  • Oct. 21, 2003 "Plutarch and Postmodernism"
  • Oct. 23, 2003 "Ancient Anger"
  • Oct. 24, 2003 "Seminar: Ancient Allegory"
2003 Christopher Gill
Department of Classics & Ancient History, University of Exeter 2002 Anthony Parker
Department of Archaeology, University of Bristol
  • Sept. 30, 2002 "Ethnography and Traditions in Boat Building"
  • Oct. 1, 2002 "Ancient Cargoes, Trade, and Travel"
  • Oct. 3, 2002 "Maritime Landscapes"
  • Oct. 4, 2002 "Seminar: Ports and Shipping in the Roman Empire"
2001 Peter H. Burian
Professor of Classical and Comparative Literatures, Department of Classical Studies, Duke University
Professor of Theatre Studies, Duke University 2001 Josiah Ober
Magie Professor of Classics, Department of Classic, Princeton University 2000 Robert C.T. Parker
Wykeham Professor of Ancient History in the University of Oxford, New College
  • Sept. 25, 2000 "Killing and Religion: Greek Sacrifice"
  • Sept. 26, 2000 "Women Alone: The Thesmophoria and the Problem of Interpreting Ritual"
  • Sept. 28, 2000 "How Could the Greeks Believe in Oracles?"
  • Sept. 29, 2000 "Seminar: Aphrodite of the Whole People and of the Sea on Cos"
1999 Denis Feeney
Fellow and Tutor in Classical Languages and Literature, New College, Oxford University
Giger Professor of Latin, Princeton University
  • Sept. 27, 1999 "Mythic Time: The Ages of Gold and Iron in Catullus, Virgil, Ovid, and Seneca"
  • Sept. 28, 1999 "Greek and Roman Time: Synchronising the Past of Greece and Rome in Cicero's and Horace's Literary Histories"
  • Sept. 30, 1999 "Festival Time: Putting Sacred Time in its Place, on a Tour of Evander's and Augustus' Rome"
  • Oct. 1, 1999 "Seminar: The Problem of Mimesis and Textuality in the Poetry of Catullus"
1999 Susan Walker
Deputy Keeper, Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum
  • March 1, 1999 "Hadrian and Hellenism"
  • March 2, 1999 "Rome: The City of Marble"
  • March 4, 1999 "Mummy Portraits from Roman Egypt"
  • March 5, 1999 "Seminar: Planning and Preparing a Special Exhibition"
1997 Erich Gruen
Gladys Rehard Wood Professor of History & Classics - Berkeley University, California
  • Nov. 3, 1997 "Hellenistic Kings and Jews"
  • Nov. 4, 1997 "Jewish Twists on Pagan Tales"
  • Nov. 6, 1997 "Pagans and Jews: the Roots of Anti-Semitism"
  • Nov. 7, 1997 "Seminar: The Use and Abuse of the Exodus Story"
1996 Natalie Kampen
Professor of Women's Studies and Art History, Barnard College, Columbia University
  • Sept. 16, 1996 "Gender Theory and Roman Art"
  • Sept. 17, 1996 "The Origins of Rome: Art and the Construction of Gendered History"
  • Sept. 19, 1996 "Women and Space in Roman Culture"
  • Sept. 20, 1996 "Seminar: Roman Art in McCarthy's U.S.A."
1994 Richard Seaford
Professor of Classics and Ancient History, University of Exeter 1994 †John D'Arms
Gerald F. Else Professor of Classical Studies, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Graduate school. University of Michigan
  • Mar. 7, 1994 "Roman Convivial Equality - in Theory and Practice"
  • Mar. 8, 1994 "Heavy Drinking and Drunkenness in the Roman World"
  • Mar. 10, 1994 "Spectacle and the Roman Communal Meal"
  • Mar. 11, 1994 "Seminar: Roman Emperors' Nighttime Brawls"
1992 George F. Bass
Abell Professor of Nautical Archaeology, Texas A&M University 1992 Averil M. Cameron
Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine Studies and Professor of Ancient History, King's College London
Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine History and Warden, Keble College, Oxford University 1991 †Keith Hopkins
Professor of Ancient History, University of Cambridge 1991 Mireille Corbier
Directeur de Recherche au C.N.R.S. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris
  • Mar. 18, 1991 "Writing and Public Space in the City of Rome"
  • Mar. 19, 1991 "Constructing Kinship in Rome"
  • Mar. 21, 1991 "The Ambiguous Status of Meat in Ancient Rome"
  • Mar. 22, 1991 "Seminar: The House of the Caesars"
1990 Jasper Griffin
Professor and Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford
  • Sept. 24, 1990 "Teach the Free Man How to Praise: Augustus and his Poets"
  • Sept. 25, 1990 "The Emergence of Herodotus"
  • Sept. 27, 1990 "How to Move Mobs: The Art of Roman Oratory"
  • Sept. 28, 1990 "Seminar: The Origins of Pastoral"
1989 Patricia E. Easterling
Professor of GreekUniversity College, London
  • Sept. 19, 1989 "Transmission: How and Why Greek Texts Survived"
  • Sept. 20, 1989 "New Finds in the Twentieth Century"
  • Sept. 21, 1989 "Ancient Greek Poetry and the Modern World"
  • Sept. 22, 1989 "Seminar: Ancient Scholarship on Oedipus Coloneus"
1989 Paul Cartledge
University Lecturer in Ancient History and Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge
  • Mar. 17, 1989 "Seminar: The Myth of History"
  • Mar. 20, 1989 "Herodotus and the Other"
  • Mar. 21, 1989 "Thucydides and Soviet-American Relations"
  • Mar. 23, 1989 "The Tacitism of Edward Gibbon: the Decline and Fall of an Idea"
1988 Geoffrey E. Rickman
Professor of Roman History University of St. Andrews
  • Sept. 19, 1988 "The Roman Grain Trade"
  • Sept. 21, 1988 "Roman Ports"
  • Sept. 22, 1988 "An Ancient Megalopolis: the Day-to-Day Functioning of the City of Rome"
  • Sept. 23, 1988 "Seminar: Cleopatra: History and Evolution of a Myth"
1987 T. Peter Wiseman
Professor of Classics and Head of Department, University of Exeter
  • Oct. 26, 1987 "Julius Caesar and the Expanding Empire"
  • Oct. 28, 1987 "Ancient Theatres: What Were They For?"
  • Oct. 29, 1987 "The City of Rome, Ancient and Modern"
  • Oct. 30, 1987 "Seminar: Roman Satyrs: the Background to Horace's Ars Poetica"
1987 Fergus G.B. Millar
Camden Professor of Ancient History, Oxford University
  • Mar. 23, 1987 "Popular Politics and the End of the Roman Republic"
  • Mar. 25, 1987 "The People and Roman Imperialism in the 60s B.C."
  • Mar. 26, 1987 "Popular Politics and the Rise of Julius Caesar"
  • Mar. 27, 1987 "Seminar: The Roman Near East: Perspectives and Problems"
1987 †George P. Goold
Professor and Chairman, Department of Classics, Yale University
  • Jan. 26, 1987 "About Cynthia's Death (Propertius 4.7)"
  • Jan. 28, 1987 "A Paraclausithuron from Pompeii (CIL IV.5296)"
  • Jan. 29, 1987 "What the Greek Stars Foretold: A Survey of Greek Astrology"
  • Jan. 30, 1987 "Seminar: Recent Developments in Latin Lexicography"
1986 Sir Kenneth J. Dover
Professor of Greek and Chancellor of the University of St Andrews
President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford University
  • Oct. 6, 1986 "Aristophanes on Slaves"
  • Oct. 8, 1986 "Aristophanes on Women"
  • Oct. 9, 1986 "Aristophanes on Peace"
  • Oct. 10, 1986 "Seminar: Greek Homosexuality and the Anthropologists"
1986 Kenneth D. White
Professor Emeritus of Classics, University of Reading
  • Mar. 3, 1986 "Roman Ships and Ship Building"
  • Mar. 5, 1986 "Recent Research in the Mechanics of Ancient Warfare"
  • Mar. 6, 1986 "Water Supply in the Classical World"
  • Mar. 7, 1986 "Seminar: Lean Acres: A Slice of the Agrarian History of Roman Italy"
1984 †Geoffrey S. Kirk
Regius Professor of Greek, University of Cambridge
  • Oct. 1, 1984 "Myths and Imagination"
  • Oct. 3, 1984 "From Myths to Philosophy in Ancient Greece: Some Further Thoughts"
  • Oct. 4, 1984 "The Creation of the Olympian Gods"
1983 Margaret Rule
Archaeological Director, Mary Rose Trust, Portsmouth, England
  • Sept. 29, 1983 "The Mary Rose: the Excavation and Raising of Henry VIII's Flagship"
1982 Thomas G. Rosenmeyer
Professor of Comparative Literature, University of California, Berkeley.
  • Nov. 1, 1982 "Phantasia and Imagination"
  • Nov. 3, 1982 "Some Thoughts on Irony"
  • Nov. 4, 1982 "Decision-Making in Classical Tragedy"
1981 †Michael Grant
Professor of Humanity, Edinburgh
University Vice-Chancellor, University of Khartoum
President and Vice-Chancellor, Queen's University, Belfast
  • Feb. 26, 1981 "The Etruscans"
  • Feb. 27, 1981 "Seminar: The Task of a Roman Emperor"